Forging Fury

ooc: This is the first IC thread for the Forging Fury campaign that I am holding. The players are Bront, Ringmereth, Amy Kou'ai, ShaggySpellsword and d'Anconia. Have at it folks.

A group of disenfranchised warforged have come together. They have differing motives, differing skills and differing lifestyles, however they all came together in a glade several leagues southeast of Sharn. The group arrived in response to a rather mysterious summons stating very simply the word "Come" with appropriate directions.

Many warforged answered the call, however only a sparse group has remained true to the task. One such 'Forged is simply running from the law, others are looking for a life and new experiences. Bound together by an aging human, who claims the simple name of Juarin yet sports the clothing of a lord, the group have managed several mundane and simple tasks.

Juarin instructed the group in various menial tasks. A 'Forged named North, skilled in the work of a quartermaster, and a Bard by the name of Tenor were set about simply negotiating deals for building materials. The entire remaining group were put about the actual menial labour of building a small stone and wood hut for Juarin - a palace fit for a king he would joke. Always he promised that this was merely a test, that the group was being held together for a higher purpose.

Some of the 'Forged balked at the idea of dealing with a human, however predominantly the Warforged seemed to take exceptionally to the idea of working with their own people. Juarin began to leave his commands with Tenor or North, whomever was available, as they both appreciated and enjoyed the company of the human. The same could not be said of Agarndas, a dark and secretive 'Forged who could often be found cutting up forest animals when the work slacked off. Shadow, another secretive 'Forged was often about his own business as well, and while he was generally good tempered, he preferred greatly to deal with his own people rather than with Juarin or any other human.

After several months working for him and learning to work well with each other, the group was rather surprised to see the man himself come before them instead of putting orders in through North or Tenor. Juarin came to the group one quiet summer morning asking for all of them to prepare for a journey, and to meet afterwards in the low stone building that they had built.

The building was crafted as something of a dug-out or bunker. The 'Forged had been asked to dig out a 6' deep, large rectangular hole and line it with heavy stone blocks, both floor and exterior walls. Another four feet of wall were added to stick up above the ground and a roof was erected on top, slanting slightly in the same direction as the low hill the building sat upon. As such, to enter the building required walking down a tight staircase to a sheltered doorway at the level of the floor.

As the group stepped inside the building, which they had been in dozens of times before, they moved towards the left room which Juarin routinely held meetings in. He gathered the warforged around the table, knowing that offering them a seat was foolish as they would not be tired. He kept things simple, and drew their attention towards the map on his table before he began speaking at length.

"My friends and helpers, first of all I want to thank you for all of your work in bringing this base of operations to fruition. Without your help, none of this would be possible," he said with a flourish taking in the building surrounding them.

When he was sure he had their attention again, Juarin spoke quickly, "I know that you have been impatient, waiting for me to fulfill my promise of work and purpose beyond the menial that I have set before you. Today that day has come."

"I have not been particularly forthcoming with the purpose for this little shack, nor about its rather odd design. I am sure that you will understand in due time, but quite simply I have enemies, and did not want any of you to learn too much in the event that you may leave my service with my secrets in hand. This building will be exactly what it seems, a bunker of sorts, as I am gathering together a group of Warforged, much like yourselves, to build a new community."

"You may ask yourselves, 'Why is this man so interested in Warforged?' and I promise you that someday you will understand this as well, but for now all I can say is that I have a vested interest in the introduction of Warforged to this world as a whole, as real, tangible, equal people. You are people, and deserve to be treated as such."

"The first step to such a goal is to create an open forum from which the other races can see you all at work. The Lord of Blades has gone off and made a tyrannical society out of the Mournland and closed himself off, making Warforged even more distrusted than they are to begin with. Some people see you as soulless. Some people see you as mechanical and heartless. We need to show them that they are wrong, and they cannot see that if you hide yourselves behind a wall of magical fog."

"In that endeavour, I am building this village in the middle of nowhere. We need to build an economically viable enterprise to trade with the other races of Khorvaire, and to put ourselves on the maps."

"Now, this is where you come in. I am, quite plainly, not a warforged. I cannot even pretend very well. I need you folks to be the founders and ambassadors to the world at large. You will deliver the summons to groups of warforged across the continent and you will lead them to glory in the light of day rather than the darkness of the Mournland. If you wish to do this by your own volition, then I encourage that. If you prefer to be under the strict and rigid command you remember from the war, I can comply. I merely beg with you that you take up this dream as your own. The Warforged of Khorvaire need a voice and a place to speak it clearly and openly. You cannot hide from your heritage." Juarin gazed pleadingly at the Warforged assembled, hoping that his words and dreams had sunk in.

After a brief moment, before the Warforged could respond, and a look at the map again, Juarin returned his level gaze to the Warforged. He continued speaking, "If you will accept this dream, then I must suggest our first step toward this business. The Warforged have one thing that no one else can offer -- not the crafters of Cannith, or the soldiers of Deneith, or the holy-men of the Silver Flame. The Warforged have tireless fortitude. You do not sleep, you do not eat, you do not drink - you have the ability to do anything that the other races can do, and you can do it without rest."

"Many of your brothers and sisters are content with the life of monotony, be it the repetition of warfare or the drudgery of menial labour. We need to seek these Warforged out and introduce them to the dream. We need to convince them that their lives will improve if they are with us. We need them for their labour-skills. Khorvaire is about to go through an industrial revolution, and you and your people can be at the leading edge of it -- if only you gather together and present a solid front of efficient workmanship and quality," Juarin closes with a sigh.

After a brief bustling and grabbing at paperwork at a nearby desk, he comes back to the main table. He says, quietly, to the gathered Warforged, "It has come to my attention that a group of Warforged have been encamped near the border of the Mournland in Karrnath. They are being forced to work on building a fortress to hold back the dangers of the Mourning. This task would have several benefits, ranging from the freedom of indentured slaves (as our friend North should most likely appreciate) to the crippling of the tyrannical Karrnathi regime, as well as to prevent the Lord of Blades from scooping up your brethern to take part in his so-called freedom (even though his freedom involves hiding from the world.)"

"I do not require you to take up this task. Merely think on it. The benefits are great, both for yourselves and for your people. You shall have anything that you need to complete this task if you choose to accept it. Anything, that is, within reason - most notably transport arrangements both to and from the area in question. Once we build up this village, you shall find that the rewards your own people shall reap upon you will be both frequent and generous."

"Now please, talk amongst yourselves. Get back to me with a united answer. I shall now take my seat, because while you folks are tireless, these old bones are not," and with that, Juarin shuffled his papers together and sat down in the chair in the corner by the desk. He left the Warforged to muddle over the plans around the large map of Khorvaire in the middle of the room. The map pointed out both where they were, southeast of Sharn, and the region of Karrnath dedicated to this new fort - many miles south of a dot marked Fort Zombie, along the Lightning Rail track that leads into the region that is no longer Cyre.

Shadow Responds

After a pause of maybe thirty seconds, Shadow responds, “I for one am very interested in this endeavor. However, I do think there are some things we need to consider before we embark on this journey. I’m going to speak in broad strokes here and try to lay out the long term picture as I see it.”

“First, we’re going to be stepping on quite a few toes here,” Shadow remarks in a deliberate manner. “We have all heard the whispers and rumors coming out of the Mournland about this ‘Lord of Blades’ character – his society seems to be a wholly militant one. As we go about conducting this civic experiment, we should all be very aware that in a sense we are aligning ourselves directly in opposition to this group of our kin. As we become larger and more well known as on of the first society of ‘forged living independently in Khorvaire, it is quite possible that this self styled Lord will take great offense with us trying to show the ‘forged an alternative way to live. If, no when, this happens, we will have to be ready for anything and everything from direct armed conflict with his followers, to misinformation being spread about our settlement and activities, to the sabotaging of our construction efforts. There will be a very real threat, also, that old Blades will try to slip in some spies among our recruits to report back to him on our progress and then strike us when and where it will hurt the most. For all of these reason, I would suggest that we go about these missions drawing as little public attention to ourselves as possible. We should observe and work with these other groups of warforged we wish to recruit for a time to make sure they will be receptive to what we are offering, so that once we do extend them the offer to come build this civilization, we can be reasonably assured they will accept and not go running to the Mournland with this information. Plus, once we get to know these groups of our kin, they may be more inclined to trust us and not inadvertently spread word of our project by asking too many questions of too many people.”

“And that’s not even beginning to deal with the problems we might run into within the Brelandish government itself, curse them” Shadow mumbles in conclusion.

Tenor chimes in with his usuall melodic voice. "This is an endevor truely worth taking. There is much that the 'Forged need to learn of the nature of life and the other races. And any warforged that is working against his will should be considered as repugnant as slaving any other race."

"But Shadow speaks the truth that we tread on dangerous teritory. Not only will the Lord of Blades be against us, but we risk the ire of other nations as well. We must be carefull in how we approach even other warforged, for we do not want them to turn on other nations, just demand treatment like any other being. Karrnath's methods of using warforged may be dispicable, but the fortress will protect it's people from the Mournland, many of which are guilty of no crime other than simply living in Karrnath. And if they blame the 'Forged for endangering them, it is a step back in our relations."

"We must free our fellow warforged from slavery, but we must make the Karnnathi slavers the enemy, not the people of Karnnath. We must provoke sympathy, not anger, fear, or apathy. We must show them is as much to a Warforged as there is to any other race, and we will not accept life as second place citizens."

Tenor looks around the room, gauging the crowd's reactions to his potentialy contivertial words.

North speaks up, slowly at first, but growing in passion as he gets going.

"We do this job, we follow this dream, and we will free a number of warforged from Karrnath. This is valuable. This action upsets Karrnath and they come after us. This is a problem. We need support and aid. I doubt that it will take much convincing of the Brelish government to stop a Karrn army from invading these borders, so aid is readily availible. We can handle independant agents of Karrnath. We do this job, we follow this dream, and we leave the Mournland border of Karrnath undefended. I have lived and served in Karrnath, and I know for a fact they have other resources of labor to build this defense. We have not crippled them, only slowed them down. This is nothing to feel sorry for. Perhaps we can obtain a scroll of Sending, or similar magics to let Kaius know what we've done after we've done it. That may alleviate a heavy soul."

North pauses for a moment, considering his next words.

"As for this Lord of Blades...he need not be a problem. When we free the enslaved warforged, it would be wrong of us to lead them to believe that our dream here, this settlement, is the only community of warforged in the land. We kill their slavers, we free the slaves, and we tell them that there are warforged who try and make a life alone in this world, and that it is possible and that it is hard. We tell them that there are warforged who hide themselves away in the Mournland, leaving their seclusion only to strike out against those they see as their oppressors. These warforged live only for revenge. We also tell these warforged that we have have freed about us. We tell them about the dream. Our work will win some recruits for the Lord of Blades. Those are the recruits that would have likely turned against us if the Lord of blades had been our enemy. Our work, if it is as good as I believe it to be, will win us more recruits. The Lord of Blades is appeased, at least for now, and we grow in strength."

North seems to collect himself, and states very calmly,

"My thoughts are many and impassioned on this subject, so I should sum them up: Our first prority is to have a respectable number of warforged living here: to establish a community. Our second priority is to convince the Brelish government that we mean peace at that we are valuable to Breland. This will afford us protection. Breland is the nation that pushed for our freedom. I think it fair that it be the nation we offer our strength. Perhaps then we should send envoys to the Lord of Blades with promises not to hinder his attacks as long as he not hinder our peace."

Agarndas listened to the other 'Forged speak their opinions, both nodding and shaking his head at various comments and propositions, then spoke:

"I believe that there is danger in this human's words. I have studied men for years, and while I am finding that the Warforged need protection, they may not need this protection. Juarin may have an uncommon interest in our kind, but his plan makes us slaves as surely as the Lord of Blades enslaves his Warforged. If we consent to create a new nation of tireless workers, then we define ourselves as machines and tools to our makers. Our value is decided by the work we can do, not the power of our minds or souls," says the Warforged in an quiet, even voice. "His vision should not be our own. We must prove our equality, or our superiority, by serving our own needs, not man's."

"I believe that there is danger in this human's words. I have studied men for years, and while I am finding that the Warforged need protection, they may not need this protection. Juarin may have an uncommon interest in our kind, but his plan makes us slaves as surely as the Lord of Blades enslaves his Warforged. "

OOC: I'm pretty sure he's still in the room, and can hear what we're saying. Also, if we've agreed to work for Jauron for some month's now, I find it hard to believe we wouldn't at least trust him in some way.

(( OOC: Yeah, Juarin is still sitting there in the corner. That being said, I see Agarndas as the sort of character that would not let that stop him from saying something like that. Rudeness is not a concept he cares to worry about. He sees that the human has stepped aside, and Agarndas speaks to the warforged as if the Human does not exist, because to him, the human is little more than an object to be watched, weighed, examined, and discarded when finished with.

As for the working thing... Agarndas decided to stay around. He is staying because he is running from the law, and this seems as good a place to continue his studies as any. His personal agenda would rather not bring any light to his position or his actions, so joining a fraternity that will soon become VERY public is possibly not in his best interests, whereas sticking around to this point helped keep him busy while laying low.

Atleast, that's how I view things. Ringmereth may be playing his character differently from that but I call 'em how I see 'em. Make of it what you will.

Agarndas will be difficult to pull into the group, and I recommend that you use your characters to sway him rather than expecting him to just follow along. Perhaps someone can question him about his motivations and then North, being from Karrnath, can mention that the nation is full of Necromancers to learn from. ))

(( OOC: Yeah, Juarin is still sitting there in the corner. That being said, I see Agarndas as the sort of character that would not let that stop him from saying something like that. Rudeness is not a concept he cares to worry about. He sees that the human has stepped aside, and Agarndas speaks to the warforged as if the Human does not exist, because to him, the human is little more than an object to be watched, weighed, examined, and discarded when finished with.

As for the working thing... Agarndas decided to stay around. He is staying because he is running from the law, and this seems as good a place to continue his studies as any. His personal agenda would rather not bring any light to his position or his actions, so joining a fraternity that will soon become VERY public is possibly not in his best interests, whereas sticking around to this point helped keep him busy while laying low.

Atleast, that's how I view things. Ringmereth may be playing his character differently from that but I call 'em how I see 'em. Make of it what you will.

Agarndas will be difficult to pull into the group, and I recommend that you use your characters to sway him rather than expecting him to just follow along. Perhaps someone can question him about his motivations and then North, being from Karrnath, can mention that the nation is full of Necromancers to learn from. ))

OOC: Thanks. Calling 'em how you see 'em, indeed, and your vision isn't too far off. While Agarndas has (slightly) more respect for humans (especially this particular one) than you said, he has a blunt manner. He was never trained to be diplomatic; he was trained to repair fellow Warforged, something that would require quickly and accurately giving necessary information, not dawdling and using niceties.

Another note is that Agarndas is used to being detached from society and people and studying from afar. Right now he's not only heavily involved, but feels like he's being studied himself. It's an interesting and unusual situation for him. He's not likely to ditch the group, but neither will he just blindly follow the others, or Juarin, along. Ergo, he'll need some persuasion.

Agarndas listened to the other 'Forged speak their opinions, both nodding and shaking his head at various comments and propositions, then spoke:

"I believe that there is danger in this human's words. I have studied men for years, and while I am finding that the Warforged need protection, they may not need this protection. Juarin may have an uncommon interest in our kind, but his plan makes us slaves as surely as the Lord of Blades enslaves his Warforged. If we consent to create a new nation of tireless workers, then we define ourselves as machines and tools to our makers. Our value is decided by the work we can do, not the power of our minds or souls," says the Warforged in an quiet, even voice. "His vision should not be our own. We must prove our equality, or our superiority, by serving our own needs, not man's."

Tenor speaks up again, his musical voice clear for all to hear "Juarin has given us no reason not to trust him, and treated us well beyond what I know many 'Forged have ever had. While I agree we must seek our own vision of our future, Juarin has provided us a basis for which to build it. We have the rescources to build a true comunity. A place to congregate, to laugh, to learn, and perchance to love." Tenor lests that last comment linger for a moment, his passion in his words begining to show, though perhaps lost on his less emotional bretheren.

"There is much beyond our existance of working all day, and Juarin gives us a chance to explore that. For now, in serving his needs does serve our own. But we are more than mere machines, for war or peace. We are beings. We have souls. We can feel emotions. We can learn from our our mistakes and rise above them, and we can seek to be more than what those who forged us saw for us."

Tenor motions to the crowd, and his voice begins to rise in volume as he goes. "My friends... My bretheren...We are the new generation. What we do here could effect Warforged for ages to come. And we must not accept anything but the best for us and our kind." Tenor shouts that last part and raises his hands up high, hoping to rile the crowd to ride their emotions a bit and let out cries of support.

If Agarndas had possessed natural eyes, they would be wide at Tenor's enheartened speech. Having none, though, he listens quietly, and then replies. "I do not distrust this man's motives, but he has yet to prove his judgement to us. He may have concern for our kind, but he is not Warforged," he argues. "Few of our own kind know what we need. I agree that a community of Warforged may help us and others oppressed by humans, but we should not be too swift in creating a group that will draw the ire of men, nor hasty in devoting ourselves to meaningless labor that benefits beings of flesh instead of Warforged."